Ambiguously Human
by Jet556
Summary: An ambiguously human veteran of the Fenian Raids suddenly on a planet that the Galra have turned their attention to.
1. Origins

**Welcome, everyone. This is my fan fiction for Season 4. Enjoy and review.**

 **Origins**

He was an exceeding aged gentleman. He was one hundred years old but he recalled no juvenescence. He appeared to be thirty years old just as he did forty years prior when he was sixty. He had died twice and was still alive. His date of birth was 1772 and his name was Jack Carthwright but his memory was devoid of any childhood, his date of birth being one of the few things about his past he could remember.

He did not know how he came to be where he was. All that he knew was that he was in the company of people who looked human save for their skin color. Indeed he had never seen any human being with blue skin before. He supposed his ruddy skin looked just as odd to them.

A veteran of the Fenian Raids that had ended a year prior, Jack had fought on the Canadian side. Thus he had been wearing the uniform of a Canadian soldier. His hair was red, his eyes blue, he was tall, he was lean, he had a square jaw… Strangely, he kind of looked like Spencer Tracy who would not be born until 1900.

He stared at his surroundings. Interacting with the locals, he spoke to them with a kindness that he hoped would be returned. He noticed that both men and women did not wear much clothing and he felt kind of overdressed.

There was the saying "When in Rome" but at the moment Jack had no clue where he even was. The island was covered in mountains and the wide sea was nearby so he was not very far inland. The town or city he was in looked vaguely Egyptian in architectural style but their attire looked as much Egyptian as a horse looked like a tapir. It was an agricultural place and for some reason Jack could have felt at home here alongside the farmers.

He had been a captain in the Canadian military but he did not think his rank would get him anything here. Why would it? When he looked to the sky he saw a sky he did not recognize. He knew not where he was or why he was there let alone how he was there.

Looking at his gun, he felt there was no need for it. Wherever he was, he felt that he did not need it. Wherever he was he felt that he was in paradise.

"Have the Galra turned the attention to our planet yet?" Jack turned his head in the direction he had heard the voice come from. An old man was talking to a younger man.

What talk was this? Who were the Galra?


	2. The Galra Arrive

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 **The Galra Arrive**

The Galra's arrival was met with disdain from the natives. The blue skinned natives all stared with hate in their eyes at the purple-skinned invaders. Jack himself did not understand who the Galra were but as a veteran of the Fenian Raids and recognizing how the Galra conducted themselves he knew them to be raiders. Why the natives did not stop the Galra was beyond him but he soon saw when he came to an armory… Swords, daggers, axes, spears, pistols and rifles powered by something he did not know… The weapons of the Galra were like portable Gatling guns.

The Galra had all of the natives rounded up in a… temple? Jack wanted to call it a temple but he knew not if that would be the correct term for the place. He had been able to avoid the Galra but now that they were here Jack did not know how long he'd be able to avoid them.

Taking a pistol, Jack suddenly heard someone enter the armory. "What in the empire is this? Some freak?"

Jack turned to see a Galra soldier standing in front of him. The soldier was pointing a gun at him.

"I've met raiders before." Said Jack. "I killed two at Ridgeway and three at Fort Erie. You'll be the first non-Fenian raider I've ever faced."

"Raider?" asked the soldier. "I am no raider! We Galra are not raiders! We are conquerors!"

"Being a bit premature aren't you?" inquired Jack. "At the moment you are invaders at the most and not all invaders are successful."

"Enough!"

The Galra fired at Jack. Jack fired back, jumping aside as he did. It was the Galra who fell to the floor dead.

Jack did not stop to get the weapon of his enemy. He stuck with the weapons of the natives. With a belt with a sword hanging at one side and a pistol in a holster at another, he was ready for a fight with these invaders.


	3. The Temple

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 **The Temple**

With the locals all in temple, the Galra commander looked them over. He did not view them as sentient any that were not Galra did not qualify as sentient. Then someone strange entered the temple.

With eyes wide, the Galra commander dropped his mace and exclaimed: "I don't believe it! What is it?"

"What you've never seen a Canadian before?" asked Jack. Armed with both sword and pistol, he may not have seen threatening to the small host of Galra.

To say that no one had ever seen a human before would have been an understatement. By the time that the Galra had come across the Kerebos Mission and encountered Takashi Shirogane and Samuel and Matthew Holt, there were doubts that Jack Cartwright was human.

Upon the mace's contact with the floor, Jack sheathed his sword and put his pistol in its holster. The Galra commander, half-confused and half-interested, raised an eyebrow. The commander himself was eight feet tall and much more muscular compared to the Cassius-like physique of Jack. Still, the Galra commander did enjoy a good hand-to-hand fight.

The Galra commander charged only for Jack to sidestep him and the commander to run right out of the temple. Thus did Jack step outside and punch his antagonist square in the jaw. What happened then caused Jack to stare with wide eyes. The invader fell dead. Jack could never punch so hard to kill someone back on earth so why could he here?


	4. Uncertainty

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 **Uncertainty**

The death of the Galra Commander left the troops with as much uncertainty as Jack. Jack knew he could not punch so hard back on earth and was left uncertain what other marvelous abilities he was granted on this strange world. For the Galra, they were uncertain whether to let Jack live or just shoot him dead.

Then did a Galra Lieutenant approach Jack and he did say: "We are both left shocked and uncertain, stranger. For you I do not know why but we know not whether to leave or kill you."

"Why should you not kill me?" asked Jack.

"You might be invincible." Stated the Galra Lieutenant.

"I have died twice and yet I am still alive…" Commented Jack.

"Is that a riddle?" inquired the Galra Lieutenant, raising a brow.

"It is a fact. If you wish to make a riddle of it then so be it."

"We will leave and I shall contemplate this fact." And thus did the Galra leave.

Jack too left the town. He went off to brood and brood he did beneath a tree. He simply could not understand it. Although he was one hundred years old, had no memory of any juvenescence and looked thirty just as he had forty years prior he had essentially been human back on earth so where had this fantastic strength come from? He had seen no evidence of the natives having any such strength so why then had he? It was certainly an answer he could not figure out no matter how long he brooded on it. He just had this fantastic strength. There was no way to explain it. He just did.

The sound of footsteps then came to Jack's ears. He looked to his left and saw a girl, late teens or early twenties. She was a lean person with straight red hair and reddish-brown eyes. Being one of the locals she was blue skinned. Her attire consisted of a very brief two-piece garment. Her name was Vaoja, a name that would sound exotic even to exotic people on earth.

"I would like to thank you for helping us, Jack." She said.

"You are welcome, Vaoja." Jack sighed and then looked to the ground.

"Is everything alright?" asked Vaoja.

"I… I am not sure." Jack tried to laugh it off. "I don't suppose you'd like to hear about what is on my mind."

Vaoja only gave a smile. "Try me."


	5. One Day After

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 **One Day After**

The Galra did not return the following day. That was fine for Jack. He tried to think of things that would not cause him to become uncertain. To do that he thought of Roman Empresses!

Herennia Etruscilla. She had been an Augusta and regent of the Roman Empire. Her husband had been the emperor Decius her children the emperors Herennius Etruscus and Hostillian.

Marcia Otacilia Severa… She had been the wife of Philip the Arab.

Tranquillina… She had been the wife of Gordian III.

Caecilia Paulina… She had been the wife of Maximinus Thrax… Maximinus Thrax… What an impressive name! It certainly put to shame the names of other emperors.

Sallustia Orbiana… the wife of Severus Alexander. Neither her nor her husband had much of a name.

Aquilia Severa… A wife of Elagabalus and they too didn't have much when it came to a name.

Annia Faustina, Julia Cornelia Paula… Jack sighed. He felt like a schoolboy again. He remembered how his tutor had him recite the names of the rulers of Rome and their consorts forward and back until he had them all remembered.

"What is on your mind?"

Jack turned to see Vaoja standing not far away. "I am just trying to think of things that would not cause me to become uncertain. I have no idea why my mind went to consorts of dead emperors from my world."

"Does your doubt about you being one of your own race upset you?" asked Vaoja.

"I have long known there was something that put doubt on my humanity." Stated Jack.

"Well you are not among people of your own race now." Said Vaoja. "Relax and try to feel less doubtful. Variety is a wonderful marvel."


	6. The Galra Return

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 **The Galra Return**

The following day the Galra returned with their entire force to conquer the settlement that Jack had arrived in. A battle did occur… Would that it could have been called a battle, truly it was more of a massacre. Vaoja had been taken captive with a few others while Jack found himself outnumbered and forced to escape from his enemies.

Although they chased him, they were sure to keep a far enough distance lest he turn and strike them. Remembering how their previous commander had been killed from a single blow of this strange ruddy skinned alien, the Galra were loath to face him at close quarters. Yet even then, they were so preoccupied with not facing him at close quarters they were unprepared for when he occasionally stopped in his tracks and fired an energy pistol at them.

Down one of the Galra fell dead and quick was Jack to dash away as his enemies began to fire at him. They were persistent chaps he'd give them that.

Drawing his sword, Jack smiled as a look of horror fell upon the fronts of his adversaries. He leapt towards them, swinging his sword left and right and with each swing a killing stroke was landed upon the invaders.

His pursuers were dead but the town was ransacked and the inhabitants were either dead or taken captive. Jack could not leave them, let alone Vaoja, to remain captives of such loathsome lawbreakers. He was a Canadian and it was the custom of Canadians to abominate blackguards. The Irish and the Scots had made Canada and from them had come the custom to abominate blackguards.

The Irish and the Scots, those two races of heroes. Only from the combined efforts could Canada, a great nation of heroes come to be created. While the softheaded English and the incompetent French had done nothing to create the greatest place on the planet known as "earth" the Irish and the Scots had done all the work. Jack himself was Irish as the father dictated the race and his mother had been Scottish. Through both his father and his mother Jack was a born hero.

Alas, if only the Fenians had not fallen. Jack had fought against them and mourned fighting good men who had been corrupted.

Still he was a born hero and it was his duty as a hero to fight for accuracy and disinterestedness. It was the Canadian way.


	7. Galra Weaponry against the Galra

**Welcome back, everyone. My health has not been good this year. I've gotten sick many times throughout the year. It makes me wonder if I should make this my last Voltron story. If I do, then I do. Enjoy and review.**

 **Galra Weaponry against the Galra**

The Galra that Jack had killed had left armor and weapons, something that would come to great use. There was no possible way that he could make himself look like a Galra, just wearing the armor would not work for his ruddy skin would be noticeable. He would have to go in guns blazing and sword swinging.

Making his way to the Galra ship, Jack looked at everything going on from a nearby ridge. It looked as if the Galra were using the natives for slave labor. Such an evil could not continue. It would not continue.

With the Galra gun in hand, Jack prepared to fire. He was no stranger to firearms. He was a soldier after all, no matter how strange the weaponry he could figure it out. There was a trigger and it fired… Something, a bolt it looked as if, an oddly colored one. It was like a portable gattling gun.

Waiting for the perfect moment to fire, the Canadian soldier noticed two Galra soldiers fighting one another. This was perfect.

Firing on one of the Galra, Jack gave a grin as the soldier fell dead. Then the Galra soldiers began running in the direction the shot had come from. This was where things were going to become fun.

The soldiers all came charging with guns firing. Jack fired a few times, hitting the Galra and killing the ones that were hit. That was three killed. Eleven remained.

The approaching Galra found themselves being picked off the closer they got. By the time they were close enough the eleven had been reduced to five.

Pulling the trigger on his gun, Jack was surprised to find that no bolt would come from it. Rather than throw it aside, his use of it merely changed. He took it by the barrel and proceeded to club the Galra soldiers to death with it.

With his strength that could rival Ogma, Jack brought the gun down onto four Galra. Each time the gun came down the helmet broke along with their skulls but it was not until the fourth that the gun broke as well.

Then the fifth Galra leapt at Jack with hands outstretched. Jack drew his sword and the fifth Galra ended up leaping into a sword point.


	8. The Galra Ship

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 **The Galra Ship**

Entering the Galra ship, Jack felt a strange feeling come over him. It was not like having water run over him rather it was more like entering into Acheron. There was something terribly sinister about the place. Every Galra soldier he saw paid him no mind they did not even attack him.

"Why?" he asked aloud.

"Why do we not attack you?" asked one Galra soldier. "Our current leader has given specific orders to not attack you, he wishes to do battle with you himself. One on one."

"That is unusually valorous of him." Commented Jack.

"You do not give our people enough credit. We are a very valorous people." Replied the soldier.

"Very valorous?" asked Jack, unable to believe what he had just heard. "I hardly call using people for slave labor valorous."

"Did your people ever use slave labor?" asked the soldier in turn.

Jack did not reply immediately. He merely stood there, thinking of who his people were. He was one hundred years old, looked thirty just as he had four decades prior when he was sixty, died twice and still lived and had no memory of childhood. The only thing about his past he could remember was his date of birth. He had been born in Canada and both the Indians and his own Europeans practiced it for a time until it was abolished in 1833. He had thought both the First Nations and the Europeans less than human for practicing slavery and only began to think better when slavery was abolished in Canada.

Ultimately he said: "For a time but these days I'm not sure who my people are when I'm not even sure if I'm the same species as them."

"They are not all like you?" asked the soldier.

"I think I am the only one like me..." Replied Jack.

"Then you are alone in the universe." Said the solider.

Jack looked at the soldier as the thought of a damsel native to this planet came to him. "Alone? I do not think so."


	9. The Rescue of Vaoja

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 **The Rescue of Vaoja**

As Jack entered the bridge of the Galra ship he saw Vaoja, comely Vaoja, in chains. The new Galra Commander, a large fellow who brought the giant Antaeus to mind, was standing nearby with a club in hand.

"So… The strange creature that no one has ever seen before has come to the rescue of the natives." Mused the Galra Antaeus. "I noticed how you and this damsel spoke… You admire this one don't you, alien?"

Jack drew his sword and held it aloft. "She is worth dying for."

"Worth dying a third time?" asked the Galra Antaeus. "Worth dying a final time?"

"What makes you think you can kill me permanently?" returned Jack, gripping his sword tightly.

"Nothing more than the fact that I have never failed to kill an opponent." Stated the Galra Antaeus.

"Have you ever been defeated?"

"Never."

"First time for everything." Jack gestured for his adversary to come at me and sure enough the Galra Antaeus charged. Jack charged as well then slid down between the legs of the Galra Antaeus and he brought up his sword. So died the Galra Antaeus anti-climatically.

The Galra officers on the bridge all gave a salute to Jack as he unchained Vaoja. Once she was unchained, one of them said: "You are strong and brave, sir… Though I'd wager the bravery may have come from not knowing how many times you can die."

"Aye, you'd be winning that one." Agreed Jack. He then turned his attention to Vaoja. "Are you alright, Vaoja?"

"I'm fine, Jack." She said, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

Smiling, Jack then looked to the Galra officer. "You will free the other captives."

"We will although we fear what our emperor will do when he learns of this. We may suffer just as you might."


	10. A New Beginning

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 **A New Beginning**

The Galra left and strangely they never returned. Zarkon was moved all of his ships in that quadrant to a different campaign that was still ongoing by the time of his death at the hands of his son Lotor. To say Lotor had ceased the campaign his father had moved the ships to would be untrue for by the time of Zarkon's death the campaign had become so forgotten that by the time of Voltron's final victory the campaign had not become known to the public once more until the day following Takashi Shirogane's marriage.

Watching the ships leave, Jack wondered what was next for him in this strange new world. He then looked at his sword. He did not know that the Galra would never return but he was not about to hurl his sword away. Sheathing it, he turned and looked to the town that he now called home.

"Something the matter?"

Jack turned his head to look at Vaoja, standing beside him. He then said: "I have no clue what to do now, Vaoja. After every conflict, every adventure I have never known what to do… I just drifted from one profession to the next after that… Moving from one war to the next. I am truly at a loss now."

"Jack… Perhaps it is time you just learned to live." Vaoja took him by the hand. "Already you have found a home here, why not stay here for a while? Or bring someone along for your adventures?"

A smile formed upon Jack's countenance. Vaoja as a companion… It was a lovely idea.

"I don't even know where I want to go, what place I want to see in this new world…"

"Then why not stay here for a while?"

That was also a good idea. It was time for a bit of a rest. Lightly gripping Vaoja's hand Jack then said: "A wonderful idea!"

 **The End**


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